Valse Triste

It is night. The son, who has been watching beside the bedside of his sick mother, has fallen asleep from sheer weariness, Gradually a ruddy light is diffused through the room: there is a sound of distant music: the glow and the music steal nearer until the strains of a valse melody float distantly to our ears. The sleeping mother awakens, rises from her bed and, in her long white garment, which takes the semblance of a ball dress, begins to move silently and slowly to and fro. She waves her hands and beckons in time to the music, as though she were summoning a crowd of invisible guests. And now they appear, these strange visionary couples, turning and gliding to an unearthly valse rhythm. The dying woman mingles with the dancers; she strives to make them look into her eyes, but the shadowy guests one and all avoid her glance. Then she seems to sink exhausted on her bed and the music breaks off. Presently she gathers all her strength and invokes the dance once more, with more energetic gestures than before. Back come the shadowy dancers, gyrating in a wild, mad rhythm. The weird gaiety reaches a climax; there is a knock at the door, which flies wide open; the mother utters a despairing cry; the spectral guests vanish; the music dies away. Death stands on the threshold.

Pville Flash
Midi paradise! Kudos for the sensitive rendering. Sibelius appears to offer opportunity for articulation beyond it's competitors? More likely it is the skill of the operator at the board. Well done.

Sibelius
I'm not sure Sibelius is easier than many others, but I keep practicing thinking like a string player, and getting used to playing a single line with right hand and working pitch bend and expression controls with the left.

So REAL
You've outdone yourself with this wonderful orchestration/recreation, Henry. Unlike anything Baroque or even Classical, this one required some painstaking attention to rubato and dynamics, both of which you have rendered with such care and precision. It is amazing that you are able to get such REAL-SOUNDING recordings from plug-in instruments, the the real skill here is not so much in instrumentation (which comes from the original score), but from your careful attention to the details of the performance itself. Just wonderful. I wonder if you do this just for the heck of it and the challenge, or if you orchestrate other things for commercial use. You are absolutely a master at this sort of thing. Bravo!!!

The challenge of it.
This is just for fun. Developing an understanding of how one plays various instruments. I think back to watching orchestra rehearsals and the conductor asking for an up-bow here, and this section to be played with down-bows, and so on. And I get to be conductor as well as arranger! Then I think of where each player is seated, what the hall looks and sounds like, where my mics are placed, which mics I have chosen for this music and this hall, and what the characteristics of my mics are. That gets translated into settings for reverb, EQ, delays for voices, etc.

In the beginning, computer-generated music couldn't handle much expression. The hardest challenge is recreating a live performance of physical instruments because so many people know what they actually sound like when played by skilled musicians. MIDI is a big help for an unskilled player because the performance can be refined where needed after the fact. So this is an exercise. The real fun is inventing something new, using techniques stolen from the masters to convey emotion.

However you accomplish all of this,
...it is definitely such a pleasant experience for all who hear your refined work. And this must be said, too: while perhaps many can replicate the notes and the instruments in a classical (or other) score, it takes a REAL musician (YOU) to mix it all together, conduct all the elements, and have the consummate patience to create a true ensemble sound that is so attentive to the details. Frankly, it is breath-taking. I mean it. Just breath-taking.

Take a deep bow
This is a most enjoyable listen Henry. First and foremost, the ability to take what Sibelius wrote and bring it to life as a dynamic performance is not for the faint of heart. To then do this with MIDI instruments and their own quirks and limitations on top of the countless artistic decisions required to perform this work only ups the demands of the game.

Learning exercise
This is like a painter copying the Mona Lisa. A deep study of a piece I love in hopes of improving my technique. I would like to do an enhanced version, but day-umm! it's hard to improve on the original! Besides, this isn't heard often enough. Just reminding y'all about it.